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Monday, December 2, 2013

My KDP Select Free Days Results - Part 1

When I decided to self-publish Unwritten Rules, one of the first decisions I made was to release it through Amazon's KDP Select program, and the main factor in that decision was the ability to utilize the "Free Days" option. As many of you know, if you grant Amazon exclusive sales rights to your ebook for ninety days, they allow you to offer it free for up to five days. While it may seem counter-intuitive to offer your book free in order to increase sales, that's exactly what many authors have reported, and I wanted to have the option to try it myself. Even though Unwritten Rules is my fourth published book, I am still basically an unknown author searching for ways to increase my discoverability--the magic factor that allows complete strangers to discover and purchase your work. I found numerous books on this topic and read several of them as I planned my marketing strategy (such as it is). The authors offered advice on various ways to try to make Amazon's secret algorithms work in your favor. As with most advice, some was useful, and some I discarded. One point that did make sense was that you want your book to appear toward the top of various category lists so more potential readers will see it. That's what this freebie venture is all about.Since I am an unknown, most (if not all) sales of my book during the first couple of months were to people who know me personally. I did the usual Facebook and blog tour things, and might have picked up an additional sale or two, but I doubt it. By the beginning of November, sales had completely stalled. The week before Thanksgiving, I decided it was time to bring out the big guns--the Free Days. I documented every detail of the experience and intend to share it honestly with you here. I promise not to sugar coat anything or try to make myself sound more successful than I really am.I chose 11/19 to 11/23 for my free days, uncertain if I would use them all but wanting the flexibility if I needed it. I had a list of sites that advertise free Kindle books and started notifying them about ten days in advance of my promotion. After a couple of days the biggest two, Pixel of Ink and Bookbub, advised me they would not be featuring my book, and I started to worry that I might not get enough exposure to get many downloads. These are the sites where my freebie appeared:http://snicklist.comhttp://ereadernewstoday.comhttp://bargainbookhunter.comhttp://addictedtoebooks.comhttp://goodkindles.netA couple required a minimum number of reviews (4 or 5) with a minimum average rating of 4.0, and that held me up initially. As an unknown, reviews were not exactly pouring in. I had to resort to asking friends and family to post reviews (something I've never done before) in order to get the small number required. As soon as I did, I was ready to go.During the promotion, I checked my statistics every couple of hours and recorded the pertinent statistics so I could chart my progress and hopefully pull the plug at the most strategic point.Here's an overview of what happened:Day 111:37 a.m. - 1,766 downloads, #316 in Free Kindle Store, #12 in romantic comedy, #21 in romantic suspense5:05 p.m. - 5,655 downloads, #83 in Free Kindle Store, #4 in romantic suspense, #5 in romantic comedy10:30 p.m. - 8,271 downloads, #22 in Free Kindle Store, #1 in romantic comedy, #2 in romantic suspenseDay 29:00 a.m. - 9,712 downloads, #16 in Free Kindle Store, #1 in romantic comedy, #2 in romantic suspense3:00 p.m. - 11,196 downloads, #17 in Free Kindle Store, #1 in romantic comedy, #2 in romantic suspense9:45 p.m. - 12,928 downloads, #23 in Free Kindle Store, #2 in romantic comedy, #3 in romantic suspenseDay 39:00 a.m. - 13,927 downloads, #19 in Free Kindle Store, #2 in romantic comedy, #3 in romantic suspense3:08 p.m. - 14,954 downloads, #18 in Free Kindle Store, #2 in romantic comedy, #2 in romantic suspense10:00 p.m. 15,969 downloads, #25 in Free Kindle Store, #3 in romantic suspense, #3 in romantic comedyAt this point, I gave serious thought to halting the promotion (which you can do at any time). The book had dropped off the first page in the Free Kindle Store, and I suspected it might continue to fall. However, it was still performing well in the individual category lists, so I decided to make a final decision in the morning.Day 49:00 a.m. - 17,013 downloads, #21 in Free Kindle Store, #2 in romantic suspense, #3 in romantic comedySince the numbers had improved a bit, I decided to continue the freebie but keep a close eye on the trends.1:40 p.m. - 17,866 downloads, #19 in Free Kindle Store, #1 in romantic suspense, #3 in romantic comedy6:45 p.m. - 19,023 downloads, #30 in Free Kindle Store, #2 in romantic suspense, #4 in romantic comedy10:00 p.m. - 19,651 downloads, #31 in Free Kindle Store, #2 in romantic suspense, #4 in romantic comedyI decided the the KDP Select Free Days had done their job, so I cancelled the promotion. Nearly 20,000 readers had downloaded my book. That's as much discoverability as I could hope for. Now all that remained was to see if it had done any good.Check back Wednesday for my conclusions and sales figures for the remainder of November.

Thanks for sharing your experiment, Alison! Interesting. I never tried running so many free days in a row and I found that downloads dropped off quite a bit in recent promotions compared to the first few times I ran them. I'm not sure if that represents a saturated market or what.

It's really hard to figure out what works and why. I consider this mainly an experiment. I just wish I had a couple more books in the pipeline. I think the free days work best if you can use them strategically to sell multiple titles.

It is frustrating I've had a couple download days yield thousands of downloads, and others yield only a few hundred. A friend who's been at this a while says that Amazon keeps changing their 'algorithms' which affect how the downloads affect your rankings, and it's hard to know how effective it is to publicize the event in particular venues.

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About Me

Like so many of my fellow baby-boomers, I've found myself facing the challenge of an unexpected early retirement after a long career in business, and it's scary. After much research and soul-searching, I've decided to take the plunge full time into the world of publishing--my first love and second home for the past twenty years. I hope you'll join me on this journey of discovery and reinvention.